The present invention relates to a film carrier of a photographic printer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a film carrier used for printing with trimming.
In a photographic printer, a film carrier is used in order to hold flat an image frame of a photographic film set in a printing position. The film carrier is made up of a lower mask on which the photographic film is placed, and an upper mask that holds the photographic film between it and the lower mask. During transfer of the photographic film, the upper mask is withdrawn upward so as not to damage the photosensitive emulsion layer of the film; during printing, the upper mask is pressed downward by a solenoid to hold the photographic film flat.
The lower and upper masks are each provided with an opening (image window) corresponding to the image frame of the photographic film. When ordinary printing, which needs no trimming, is to be carried out, the lower and upper masks are positioned so as to coincide with the image frame position of the photographic film.
In the photographic printer, a photographic printing paper is held on the stage by a paper mask. At this time, the exposure area on the photographic printing paper may be regulated by the opening of the paper mask (e.g., when a print with border is to be made; when printing is to be effected in a small region on the photographic printing paper; when multi-region printing is to be carried out to print a school photograph or the like; and so forth). In such a case, the image windows per se of the upper and lower masks of the film carrier do not regulate the exposure area on the photographic printing paper.
Incidentally, it is necessary in order to effect trimming printing to adjust the position of the photographic film on the film carrier with respect to the optical axis of the photographic printer in the longitudinal direction of the film (hereinafter referred to as "film feed direction") and in a direction perpendicular to the film feed direction in the film plane (this direction will hereinafter be referred to as "direction perpendicular to the film feed direction"). In trimming printing of a roll film, the adjustment of the frame position of the film in the film feed direction can be made by adjusting the film feed position. However, the frame position adjustment in the direction perpendicular to the film feed direction requires an extremely troublesome operation (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,829); the adjusting operation is particularly troublesome in an inexpensive manual-type photographic printer (which has no function that enables monitoring the state of trimming on a CRT or other image display screen). Even a photographic printer having a trimming mechanism involves some problems: it is not easy to confirm the actual trimming position; it is difficult to see where the actual trimming position is; a complicated operation is required in which the upper mask is moved to determine a trimming position, and further the film is moved so that the trimming center position coincides with the optical axis.